“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman are two short stories that incorporate multiple similarities and differences. The main characters in both stories are women who are isolated from the world by male figures and are ultimately driven to madness. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the unidentified narrator moves to a secluded area with her husband and sister-in-law in hopes of overcoming her illness. In "A Rose for Emily", Emily's father keeps Emily safe from the world and when he dies, she is left with nothing. Both stories have many similarities and differences relating to setting, characterization, symbolism, and their isolation from the world by dominant male figures, which drives them to madness. Emily and the narrator both face issues related to their identity in the stories. Both take place in different contexts, although both women are essentially imprisoned in their homes. The two women are in very different places in life. In "A Rose for Emily", she starts out young and becomes an older woman by the end. “The Yellow Wallpaper,” focuses on the narrator when she is a middle-aged woman, and is set over the course of a few months. Both stories offer different perspectives on women as "The Yellow Wallpaper" is written in the first person while "A Rose for Emily" is written in the third person. However, it is seen that both women's lives are similar in certain ways but different in other aspects. The narrator and Emily both lived in homes with dominant male figures. Where they lived was different, but they both faced isolation in their own home. In “A Rose for Emily,” Emily's house was described as “a large boxy wooden house... middle of paper... in which Emily's life was spent in seclusion. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator was also isolated in her house. The house her husband chose to stay in was abandoned and had had no tenants for years. The house was described as a former mental asylum. While at home, “John is absent all day, and even some nights” (Gilman 2). The narrator spends almost all of her day alone while John works and his sister-in-law gives her time alone. In her time alone, the narrator focuses on the wallpaper and this drives her to madness as she sees and imagines and works to free the woman she sees. The isolation the narrator faces plays with her mind and drives her crazy. The time spent alone was supposed to help with the narrator's illness, but in return it only makes the situation worse. Works Cited A Rose for Emily, William Faulkner The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman